I do indeed fact-check just about everyone. Especially, I fact check-myself. Sometimes, fact-checking myself is a bit embarrassing.

Example: for decades I knew, absolutely, that a pint of water weighs exactly one pound. There's an old saying, A pint's a pound the world around. Once a friend (W4DSW, Don) claimed he knew that was wrong, that it was more than a pound. I disagreed somewhat pompously and obnoxiously. Then, I fact-checked myself, finding to my surprise that he was right. Don still ribs me about it.

Wednesday I'm having cataract surgery on left eye, then two weeks later on right eye. Don will transport me to and from, both times. I'm sure to take a little ribbing.

A US pint is about 1.04 US pounds, and an Imperial (British) pint is about 1-1/4 Imperial pounds.

All my life I've been an amateur student of military history, and for example thought I knew something about the Gallipoli operation in WW1, in which the British sought (unsuccessfully) to take Constantinople by amphibious assault. It was a fiasco, with the Brits committing many classic errors. I've studied it for fifty years at least. Last month I found out I've been pronouncing Gallipoli wrong my whole life long.

Did the left eye two days ago; today I was able to drive around a little, in light traffic, in daylight. Since I have always (since age 7) worn thick glasses, but won't need them after both eyes are done, the two eyes are very different right now. I can get around with the bare left eye, or with my old thick glasses on the right, but can't use both eyes simultaneously until after surgery on the right eye, 01 March. So on the way to lunch with a bunch of hams (we lunch together every Friday) I stopped at the bank for cash, then at a drugstore to buy an eye patch (like Moshe Dayan or Sammy Davis Jr). Driving with only my left eye turned out to be very fatiguing. Ain't gonna drive at night for a while.

The surgery went well. I've known for about four years that I needed to do it. During those four years I asked every doctor I saw about my ophthalmologist's reputation; all said he's the best there is, and no one clammed up or got evasive. Then an old friend (my first Judo instructor in College in 1963), who recently retired after forty-plus years as a pharmacist, asked me whom I expected to do my surgery. I told him, "Tony Weaver". He said he had filled prescriptions for every doctor in North Florida for years and years, and could tell who was having problems, from the prescriptions he filled. Tony Weaver's patients, he said, never have problems. He's the best.

So I'm pretty sure the guy cutting on my eyes is the best around. That's very reassuring.